U.S. Army deserter Rodney Watson has claimed sancuary in a Vancouver church for over three years. Nick Procaylo/Postmedia News files

VANCOUVER — For more than three years, U.S. Army deserter Rodney Watson has staved off deportation using nothing more than the brick walls of Downtown Vancouver’s First United Church — and the unwritten biblical code of “sanctuary.”

Thus, when border officials spotted Mr. Watson “off property” during a routine check of the building Tuesday, they saw fit to make their move.

Seeing the officers approach, an elderly friend of Mr. Watson rushed in to fight them off, allowing the 35-year-old to foil their pursuit and slip back over the church’s threshold.

“It was a bit of a mystery why [border officials] were there at that particular time, almost waiting, it seemed,” said a church official.

The episode is one of the starkest examples yet of Canadian border agents being stopped by the “sanctity” of a church — a practice they claim not to recognize.

Last September, in reaction to a similar asylum case in Saskatchwan, Canadian Border Services Agency spokeswoman Lisa White told Postmedia “Canada has one of the most generous and fair immigration systems in the world, however, we’re not tolerant of those who abuse this generosity by attempting to circumvent our laws.”

U.S. Army deserter Rodney Watson in the apartment in a Vancouver church where he has been living since September 2009. Bill Keay/Postmedia News files

On Wednesday, the CBSA confirmed only that its “officers attended First United Church in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side on the evening of January 29.”

“Mr. Watson is inadmissible to Canada and is subject to a lawful removal order … individuals who have exhausted due process are expected to respect our laws and leave Canada or be removed,” wrote CBSA spokeswoman Stefanie Wudel in an email to the Post.

Nevertheless, the agency’s enforcement manual, which was obtained by Postmedia in 2010, strikes a more nuanced picture.

“There is a relatively even split in public opinion on enforcing removal orders in sanctuary cases … Thus, regardless of what approach is taken, managing public opinion will be a challenge,” it reads, advising agents to enter a church or religious temple only in extreme cases.

To date, there are only two incidents in Canadian history where law enforcement has “violated” church sanctuary to enforce a deportation order — and one of them was an accident.

Rodney Watson at the First United Church in Vancouver with supporter, and then-Liberal MP, Gerard Kennedy. Bill Keay/Postmedia News files

In 2004, police entered a Quebec City church to arrest Algerian national Mohamed Cherfi. Three years later, Iranian refugee claimant Amir Kazemian was arrested inside a Vancouver Anglican church, but only after he had first called police to the church in order to investigate a series of harassing phone calls.

Mr. Watson refused comment and referred all questions to the War Resisters Support Campaign, a Toronto-based group formed to assist U.S. military deserters who entered Canada looking to avoid service in the Iraq War. The War Resisters Support Campaign did not return calls before press time.

The man who reportedly assisted his escape by assaulting CBSA officers was arrested by Vancouver Police and released pending charges of assault against a peace officer.

At least two Vancouver Police officers were at the scene, although it is not known if they were present during the initial attempt to nab Mr. Watson, said Sgt. Randy Fincham of the Vancouver Police.

The 67-year-old Vancouver resident checked into hospital later that evening due to an “ongoing health condition” that was aggravated by the encounter.

Mr. Watson was deployed to Iraq in early 2005 but came to Vancouver in November, 2006, in order to evade a second deployment.

Three years later, he was working as a carpenter and had married a Canadian when Canadian immigration officials rejected his claim for refugee status and issued him with a deportation order.

Former KGB agent Mikhail Lennikov has also found sanctuary in Vancouver's First Lutheran Church. Wayne Leidenfrost/Postmedia News files

In September, 2009, the First United Church accepted his claim to sanctuary, putting him up in a one-bedroom apartment within the church.

Mr. Watson is one of two men claiming sanctuary in a Vancouver church. Since June, 2009, former KGB agent Mikhail Lennikov has been living in the basement of the city’s First Lutheran Church.

In October, a source close to Mr. Lennikov guessed that church sanctuary enjoyed tacit approval because it provides “breathing room” for both the CBSA and would-be deportees.

“The person seeking sanctuary avoids deportation and [CBSA] doesn’t ‘have’ to do what they really don’t want to do, namely, deport someone [who] appeals to the populace,” they wrote in an email to the Post.

“Sanctuary is, in a word, a way of ‘icing the puck’ and stopping play for a time.”